Millie Thomson won the Torvelo Women’s Road Race at Douglas on Saturday (13 June), out-sprinting a reduced front group on an exposed moorland circuit. For Solas Cycling, who drove the race, it was the numerical advantage the round had promised, delivered.
Featured image:Drew Wilson
Report
The race began under clear skies but into a strong wind that scoured the exposed moorland roads of the Abington circuit, the rolling 87.7-kilometre loop east of Douglas that doubles as stage one of the open Mennock Pass event. There is no real climb here and no flat either, only the constant rise and fall that rewards aggression over patience. By the time the race resolved, the weather had turned.
Now in its second year, the Torvelo Women’s Road Race has stepped up from Regional A to National B for 2026, and served as round five of six in the women’s Scotia Series — the revamped Scottish series that had produced a different winner at each of its first four rounds.
The bunch held together the first time over the highest point of the circuit. It was Solas Cycling who lit it, driving the pace as the road turned onto the climb — a four-rider team able to apply the kind of sustained pressure an isolated rider cannot answer. The decisive split came when Jihanna Bonilla-Allard (Paralloy RT) forced the issue, thinning the front group to nine just as the heavens opened.
That group had surged clear when the race’s central tension resolved itself in the cruellest fashion. Izzy Filor (Unattached), the series leader and the one genuine contender without a team around her, dropped her chain and slipped out of the move — exactly the isolation the exposed circuit had threatened to punish. She would finish ninth, a minute down.
Image: Corin Halliday
What remained was an uphill sprint into a headwind. Millie Thomson (Solas Cycling) had the legs for it, taking the win by a second from Kayla Dinnin (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing), with Eve Fairbairn (Liv CC–Halo Films) a further second back in third.
For Thomson it was a second Scotia round of the season, after the Dyke APR at Forres in May — making her the first rider to win twice in a series that, until Saturday, had produced a new name every time out.
Millie Thomson won the Torvelo Women’s Road Race at Douglas on Saturday (13 June), out-sprinting a reduced front group on an exposed moorland circuit. For Solas Cycling, who drove the race, it was the numerical advantage the round had promised, delivered.
Featured image: Drew Wilson
Report
The race began under clear skies but into a strong wind that scoured the exposed moorland roads of the Abington circuit, the rolling 87.7-kilometre loop east of Douglas that doubles as stage one of the open Mennock Pass event. There is no real climb here and no flat either, only the constant rise and fall that rewards aggression over patience. By the time the race resolved, the weather had turned.
Now in its second year, the Torvelo Women’s Road Race has stepped up from Regional A to National B for 2026, and served as round five of six in the women’s Scotia Series — the revamped Scottish series that had produced a different winner at each of its first four rounds.
The bunch held together the first time over the highest point of the circuit. It was Solas Cycling who lit it, driving the pace as the road turned onto the climb — a four-rider team able to apply the kind of sustained pressure an isolated rider cannot answer. The decisive split came when Jihanna Bonilla-Allard (Paralloy RT) forced the issue, thinning the front group to nine just as the heavens opened.
That group had surged clear when the race’s central tension resolved itself in the cruellest fashion. Izzy Filor (Unattached), the series leader and the one genuine contender without a team around her, dropped her chain and slipped out of the move — exactly the isolation the exposed circuit had threatened to punish. She would finish ninth, a minute down.
What remained was an uphill sprint into a headwind. Millie Thomson (Solas Cycling) had the legs for it, taking the win by a second from Kayla Dinnin (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing), with Eve Fairbairn (Liv CC–Halo Films) a further second back in third.
For Thomson it was a second Scotia round of the season, after the Dyke APR at Forres in May — making her the first rider to win twice in a series that, until Saturday, had produced a new name every time out.
Results
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